Method of splitting skins.



PArEr it FFlCEt FREDERICK W. MOORE, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO CHARLES A. MOORE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF SPLITTING SKINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 708,382, dated September 2, 1902.

Application filed October 11, 1901. Serial No. 78,326. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK W. MooRE, a citizen of the United States,residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Splitting Skins, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a novel method of splitting from tanned skins, which are more or less soft and uneven in their natural condition, one or more sheets or layers of materially less thickness than the original skin and which are available for many purposes, and more especially available for use in the manufacture of boots and shoes as sock-linings, button-flies, top facings, backstays, and linings, whereby a saving is effected in the material and a product obtained of superior uniformity, softness, and flexibility.

The invention consists in the method of applying to one or both sides or surfaces of a skin or its split layers a blank backing of cloth or other equivalent device and then passing the backed skin through a feed-compression-roll splitting-machine, the compression of the feeding-rolls coacting with the backing to spread the substance of the skin and present the same more uniformly to the action of the traveling knife, and whereby a greater number of layers can be split from a single skin and of greater uniformity than ever before due, to the presentation of the substance of the skin more evenly in thickness to the knife, and which is due to the blank backing that is passed with the skin through the compression-rolls, allas hereinafter clearly explained.

Heretofore the process of leveling or removing the uneven substance of a skin, known as fleshing, has produced a Waste of material, which my invention has saved, and which is due to the application of the backing to the surface of the skin and splitting the skin under a proper degree of compression, whereby the material formerly wasted in the fieshing process is leveled and spread and distributed in the body of the skin, thus presenting a more uniform thickness of the same to the action of the splitting device.

In carrying out my invention I prepare a tanned skin by first trimming its surface and irregular sides inclusive of any part of its edge that may be hard or bony or plaited that cannot be spread out or made smooth, and then apply a backing, preferably of cloth, to one or both sides of the skin before it is split, and then pass the reinforced skin through a feed-compression-roll splitting-machine, preferably a machine fitted with a belt-knife. If the original skin is of sufticieutthickness after one layer has been removed,the remaining portion of the skin has applied to one or both of its surfaces a similar backing and is again passed through the splitting-machine, and so on until the skin is reduced to a degree of thickness that no more perfect layers can be obtained from it.

In practicing the method herein described and claimed I wish it to be understood that the prime object of the backing when applied fixed or loose to either or both surfaces of the skin is to cooperate with the compressing action of the feed compression-rolls of the splitting-machine, whereby the substance of the skin is spread to present the same in greater uniformity in thickness to the action of the splitting device. The backing, therefore, may be passed with the skin through the splitting-machine as a blank Without being adhesively affixed thereto.

With the present invention a skin can be divided or split into a greater number of thin layers, each of the same superficial measurement as the original skin, than has heretofore been possible, and so uniformly can the skin and its removed layers be divided that the flesh and grain portions may be separated and the split surface exposed as the wearingsurface Wherever it may be applied, the opposite surface being, if desired, provided with a cloth or equivalent backing.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The method of splitting skins consisting in applying to one or both surfaces of a skin a backing of cloth, or equivalent device, and then subjecting the backed skin to a splitting device, under compression, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK W. MOORE.

2. The method of treating skins consisting in preparing a tanned skin by trimming its irregular surface and edges, then applying to one or both of its surfaces a backing of cloth,

5 or equivalent device, and then subjecting the Witnesses:

reinforced skin to a splitting device, under FRANK D. ALLEN, compression, as set forth. 1 O. SUMNER MORRILL. 

